Fans of comedy podcasts usually point listeners to two staples of the genre: WTF with Marc Maron and, in a pre "mong-gate" world at least, the record-breaking Ricky Gervais show. The former has resuscitated the career of the standup Maron, who now has his own TV show. The latter, which began its life commissioned as a series by the Guardian, ended up the most downloaded podcast in history. The only obvious science behind the success of both is the Seinfeldian simplicity: get a couple of people in, have a chat. No scripts or sketches or skits.

Which is why By The Way, In Conversation with Jeff Garlin wins no points for originality, but proves that the formula can be endlessly recycled and still be entertaining. Garlin, best known as Larry David's terminally flustered agent Jeff in Curb Your Own Enthusiasm, launched his show earlier this year with (brilliantly, expectedly) David in the first episode. It's a good excuse for Garlin to call in favours from showbizzy mates; Will Ferrell, Zach Galifianakis and JJ Abrams have all been on ahead of Matthew "creator of Mad Men" Weiner, who took his spot this week to talk about not very much, but with a lot of joy.

The pair sparred like clowns on bar stools; Garlin ragging Weiner on shows supposedly better than Mad Men and the difficulty of working with Christina Hendricks ("a big bowl of dear God"), in that distinctive, near funny in its own right, strangulated gargle of a voice (think Seth Rogen but older, bolshier). Weiner corrected him on the right pronunciation of Almodóvar and teased him about being fired by his own agent. One-two, back and forth, with not a lot to it. The trick is in making it sound so easy.

Alice Walker, the author of The Color Purple, feminist and poet, took her turn on Desert Island Discs this week, where she admitted publicly for the first time, I think, that her brother had shot her deliberately as a child. Walker was blinded in one eye, but this was the least dramatic story from a life well lived, illustrated by the choice of Stevie Wonder's As, as the song she'd like played at her funeral.